Total Eclipse of the Heart

Well, I guess the most exciting thing that happened last week was the eclipse. And it WAS truly exciting, I have to say. Ken and I drove to my aunt’s boyfriend’s place (it’s always so weird to say ‘boyfriend’ when people are in their late 60s, isn’t it, like he’s not A BOY, he’s a grown-ass man with grandkids, but I digress) and the whole fam had gathered to witness the event. I’d ordered those special glasses from Amazon, and I checked very carefully to make sure that they were legit and not going to render us all blind (as a side note, one of the larger towns near here ordered eclipse glasses also off Amazon and then had to recall them when they found out that they were knock-offs and not approved by NASA or whatnot but mine WERE and it’s been almost a week and I still haven’t gone blind). When we woke up on Monday morning, it was quite cloudy and Ken was being his typical gloom and doom self, going on about ‘cloud cover’ and wind speed and ‘chance of precipitation’ like the Weather Channel was paying him to give me his opinion, but I would not be dissuaded. “It’s going to be perfect,” I said, with all the confidence of a late-middle-aged woman who has never given a sh*t whether or not she was wrong about anything.

We left shortly after lunch to drive down to the lake, and on the way, there was blue sky on the horizon. “See,” I said. “It will be FINE.” I said this with all the confidence of a late-middle-aged woman who recently ran outside and across her front lawn in the pouring rain in her stocking feet and screamed “Get the f*ck of my street!” to an asshole in a pick-up truck who was trying to deface our Pride crosswalk by doing a burn-out on it. I got photographs of the truck AND his license plate—the jury is still out on whether or not the cops will do anything about it. Also, we had to leave Atlas behind, and a friend was going to give him lunch and let him out, but I had to message her and remind her not to let him out between 2:30 and 3:30 because he’s such a dope that he’d probably stare at it barking until his retinas burned out. She responded by sending us this picture of him on the couch, safely relaxing in the house:

At any rate, the closer we got to the lake, the more sporadic the cloud cover was, which filled me with incredible optimism. We arrived and hugged the family—Mom and Dad were there, along with my other aunt, and a couple of friends. We had snacks and wine, because what the hell is the point of watching a phenomenon of nature without ‘nature’s more fun grape juice’, and then sat on the deck. Waiting. It was still cloudy. The eclipse was supposed to start around 2:30 pm and right around then, the wind picked up and the clouds began to move. By 3 pm, the skies were blue and clear. We all had our glasses on, breathless with anticipation and freaking out that the clouds would return—but THEY DIDN’T, KEN, JUST LIKE I SAID.

It was an awe-inspiring moment. I’ve never in my lifetime seen a total solar eclipse and holy sh*t, let me tell you, it was worth the wait. And the best part was that Ken had his really good camera, and he got some amazing shots:

30 thoughts on “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

  1. Amelia and I enjoyed the eclipse from our Vermont farm. Instead of traditional glasses, I opted for my welding helmet set to a shade of 12, which proved effective. Amelia cleverly decided to use her phone’s camera as a makeshift viewer, which worked well for her. Although we had extended an open invitation to join us at the farm for a free viewing, it appears many chose to venture out, facing traffic and large crowds. After the celestial spectacle, I prepared chicken tacos, rounding off a delightful eclipse experience for us. 🙂

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  2. I drove about 70 miles out of town to see it since I knew it would be my last chance to ever see a total. I still had my eclipse glasses from 2017, but only held them up like a monocle over my real glasses. I was expecting bad weather…. especially since it rained Sunday and was supposed to rain Tuesday through Thursday…. but other than some high clouds, the sky was perfect! Much better than my 2017 viewing where the clouds rolled in during the eclipse and had it completely blocked off by peak time!

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  4. We were only able to see a partial eclipse here but I saw the total one in 2017 and it really is an amazing sight. Astronomers say eclipses are common but the confluence of events that give us the opportunity to see one are so rare that they really are special. Ken’s pictures were amazing too. I’m glad he took those but I hope he also took a moment to just marvel at the spectacle after you went to all the trouble of scaring away the clouds, like you scared away that guy in the pickup truck.

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  5. I’m so glad you had wonderful clear skies (as you knew you would). Yay. The photos are great. It’s an amazing experience. We had one about 3 years ago, and it was mesmerizing. And good thinking about Atlas, but I don’t think dogs are as stupid as humans. 🙂

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  6. barbaramullenix says:

    We, in South Florida, were only supposed to get a partial eclipse, but I was still looking forward to it. Turns out, where I was, there was a lot of beautiful blue sky – EXCEPT over the sun. Seems the reflection off the clouds was pretty powerful despite not getting a glimpse of it. So, I’m grateful to every person who took pictures and posted them for those of us not able to catch it.

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  7. Aunt’s “boyfriend”? Just call him “her lover,” that should shake the rafters.
    Somewhere, in lunar orbit, there’s a drifting cone of occlusion that is forever in total eclipse. If we get so feverish over such an event, imagine pagan cultures. They must have freaked!

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  8. Catherine says:

    Lucky! It was overcast here. I have never seen an eclipse. My friend who lives in the south enjoyed seeing it with proper glasses. The texted me that this eclipse was her third sighting👀. Should I be envious?

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  11. I have yet to see a solar eclilpse in totality–It must be cool because everyone agrees. I can’t help but wonder what it would be like for a person of antiquity with no internet to warn and explain. Probably scare the hell out of them.

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  12. Great pictures! This reminds me–when I was a kid, like in the fifth grade, my friend Archie had a little camera and he was going to take a picture of the lunar eclipse scheduled for that night. I met him outside on the street (he lived across the street) and out he came, carrying the camera with a flash attached to the top–one of those old ones that was a big ol’ shiny bowl, with the bulbs that melted when they went off. I tried to explain to him that he didn’t need a flash, and did he expect to light up the moon with it, and if he did, would that not actually cancel out the eclipse effect. We got into a big argument and I think it hurt his feelings. Story of my life.

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    • I remember my dad waking me up at 3 in the morning to watch a lunar eclipse when I was about 7. He says I staggered out, looked at the streetlight, said Wow, and went back to bed lol.

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  13. great post. few got excited here in LA since it was only a partial & predicted cloudy. I walked the dog in front of an elementary school & a teacher was showing students with glasses so she lent me hers. was truly cool, along with kindness of strangers ❤

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  14. These are some great shots. We watched from our backyard, but it was cloudy up until the last five minutes, just before it went dark. As you have said, it was an amazing experience. I describe it as someone turning down one of those dimming light switches and also the thermostat. Our backyard chickens went completely silent (which rarely happens).

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